


Familiar Faces

by Repeatinglitanies



Series: A Shot of Something Else [5]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe, Don’t copy to another site, Dubious Consent, F/M, Five didn't time travel here, Physical Abuse, Pseudo-Incest, Sexual Abuse, major angst, possible downer ending, serious angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-05 23:55:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20281990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Repeatinglitanies/pseuds/Repeatinglitanies
Summary: Aug 26 Prompt: ApocalypseIf a tsunami wasn't a sign of a coming apocalypse, Five singing Itsy Bitsy Spider surely was.





	Familiar Faces

Five had almost lost Vanya when a freak tsunami ravaged the coastal town they had chosen to vacation in. The first few days, he was beside himself with worry and desperation as he searched for her in vain, relieved that the latest corpse he had uncovered wasn’t hers but at the same time unsettled with the thought that he might not get to her in time.

In the end, he had to ask the old man for help. Neither Five nor Vanya had talked to Reginald Hargreeves since they left the Manor as soon as they turned seventeen. Truth be told, Five expected his adopted father to refuse to take his call or give Five his particular brand of “I told you so” and then hang up on Five. But Five was on his last ropes. He was willing to swallow his pride and grovel if it meant finding Vanya alive and in one piece.

Besides, Five had never been in the mood to take no for an answer. Hence, technically, he wasn’t asking the old man to aid him. Instead, Five proposed an exchange. If the old man found Vanya, Five would go back to the Academy and be the obedient soldier Hargreeves had always wanted.

Five refused to consider that Reginald would only recover a body, the soulless husk of what was once Vanya. On those dark days, he pushed himself to the limits, kept himself busy with the search and recovery mission just in order to stop himself from thinking of the worst outcome. That didn’t keep his subconscious from haunting him in his sleep, much to his horror. So Five spent several nights waking up, sweat drenching his shirt and his heart working overtime to pump blood throughout his body.

He should have known not to drop his guard when he was at his happiest. From experience, Five had long learned that life had a way of throwing curve balls right when one least expected it. 

Ever since gaining their independence, he and Vanya had been truly happy. 

Granted, it wasn’t a bed of roses to leave the only home they’ve ever known at seventeen to find out that everything needed to be paid for including clothes, food, shelter, utilities and higher education. But they didn’t survive a hellish childhood just to go back to the origin of said childhood with their tails between their legs.

So he and Vanya stuck it out. After all, the most important thing was that they had each other to lean on. And that was all that mattered. In the beginning, they saved coupons, pinched pennies, shared one burger per meal, and even held onto each other for warmth because they couldn’t afford heating.

But their years of hardship and sacrifice eventually paid off. It took longer than Five would have liked. But he was one of the youngest professors in a prestigious university and Vanya had recently made first chair in the city orchestra. For once, it seemed life was going their way.

Five already had a ring prepared. And he had just gone to the florist to pick up the bouquet he ordered while Vanya was at their rented house by the coast, blissfully unaware of what he had planned.

And then the tsunami happened. 

Despite his powers of teleportation, there was no way he could get to Vanya in time or even ascertain where he could find her.

Thus, it partly rankled Five that it took the old man three days (when Five turned up nothing in the same amount of time) to locate a living and breathing Vanya. Five only found out after receiving a call from Pogo, who told him that the old man had Vanya flown to Hargreeves Manor.

Apparently, Reginald Hargreeves found her at sea, where the tsunami’s receding waters carried her. So she was dehydrated, sporting a lot of wounds and bruises but alive. From what Pogo told him, Grace was hopeful that she would make a full recovery.

What Pogo didn’t tell him and what he only found out as he rushed to her side and took her hand in his was that Vanya had lost her memories. She didn’t know where she was or who Five even was to her.

To add salt to an already open wound, she reacted violently to his touch, quickly pulling away and acting as if he were some sort of predator out to harm her. 

___________________

As it turned out, Vanya, as she was now, was afraid of seemingly everything. She refused to leave the newly furnished room assigned to her (her old room commandeered by Klaus via hammering the wall and absorbing Vanya’s childhood bedroom into his own), much more leave the house. 

The first few weeks, she clung to Grace’s arm like a leech. At night, she insisted that the lights remain on even while she was sleeping. And whenever Five tried to approach her, she would run away. He soon found out that Vanya didn’t want to be alone with him.

The old man said that the trauma from the tsunami must have been severe to make Vanya act this way. But Five could feel the old man implying that perhaps it was Five’s fault. Five should have been there after all to save Vanya. But he had let her down when she needed it. And so, somewhere deep in her subconscious, Vanya may have remembered such a bitter disappointment that caused her to avoid him whenever he was near.

The old man didn’t recommend using Allison’s powers to recover Vanya’s memories. According to Reginald Hargreeves, mixing Allison’s ability with Vanya’s trauma would be too unpredictable and might very well end up giving Vanya permanent brain damage. All that was left was to wait and see if the memories would come back to her.

Five was never one to sit around and wait. And he hated that he had no choice but to do just that. So for the first time, Five was grateful the old man kept him busy, leaving him little time to lament about Vanya’s amnesia and the absence of Vanya’s company. When Hargreeves wasn’t having him and Luther (the only Hargreeves sibling who willingly stayed in the hellhole that was the Manor) go out on Academy missions, Five spent his remaining waking hours watching Vanya from a distance.

At the very least, Vanya still remembered how to play. But with no one the wiser of when Vanya would recover, Reginald informed the city orchestra that she wouldn’t be returning any time soon. Upon hearing of it at dinner on that same day, Five’s first reaction was to curse the old man out. 

To Five, it was his and Vanya’s apartment all over again. After finding out about her amnesia, he decided to busy himself by packing up their things, intending to bring some to the Manor while putting the others in storage. When he reached what had been his and Vanya’s place of many happy memories, all he found was a bare space stripped of anything that was Five’s and Vanya’s. The old man had apparently made the arrangements to have most of their things destroyed.

What immediately followed was a row loud enough to frighten poor Vanya into cowering under the infirmary bed.

So when he noticed Vanya looking at him across the dining table, that was all it took to get him to back down.

Vanya may have forgotten him. But she was a quick study, observant enough to know when he was about to lose his temper and then duck for cover. He knew it wasn’t fair to subject her to a front row seat of another uncomfortable father-son spat. So he had done what was previously unthinkable. He kept his mouth shut and tried to see how Reginald’s decision (to have Vanya effectively kicked out of the position that took her years to achieve) would benefit a recovering amnesiac.

After all, Vanya needed time to recover from her injuries. Coming out of a traumatic event without a single shred of memory (she initially didn’t even know how television and telephones worked) meant that she needed round the clock care and guidance that Grace was more than adequate to provide.  
With Five having to spend the majority of his time fulfilling missions on behalf of the Academy and with the old man never allowing Grace outside the Manor (not that the current Vanya ever wanted to leave), it just made sense that Vanya stay in Hargreeves House indefinitely.

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t frustrated or angry at how completely their years together had been wiped from her mind. But he had to face facts and learn how to deal with them. There was no way of knowing for sure if Vanya would ever recover her memories. 

So he had to be content with the fact that Vanya alive and safe. At least they were together in the sense that they were living under the same roof. It may well be that the old Vanya he knew was gone to be replaced by one starting with a completely new set of memories. That possibility always gave him cause to grieve. But he reminded himself that it was still her. And Five loved Vanya, will always love Vanya. That was all that mattered.

Grace had Vanya look through old videos of their Academy days. If there’s anything the old man was good at, it was keeping lots of records and also reminding his adopted children that they were no better than lab rats. But Five kept that to himself.

A part of him had hoped that the tapes would spark some recognition in Vanya’s mind. But that didn’t seem to be the case, though she could finally look him in the eyes and talk to him. She still couldn’t stand him being so close to her. But at least, she finally stopped panicking at being alone with him.

Most of the time, it was just Five talking and recounting the past to her while Vanya listened intently. But sometimes, it was Vanya playing a piece for him.

It wasn’t much though Five continually told himself to be content. It may be considered a small step. But it was a step in the right direction because she was finally learning to trust him again.

____________________________

Five cursed the lightning that caused a power outage in the middle of the night. A few moments later, he also cursed the thunder that woke Vanya up. Naturally, she opened her eyes to total darkness, which in turn caused her to freak out and scream bloody murder.

When he first heard her distress, Five had thought some intruder had come in and was attacking her. On instinct, he used his powers to jump to her room. In hindsight, he should have at least brought a flashlight.

The momentary flash of blue light he emanated whenever he used his powers only got her screaming louder. When he reached for her in an attempt at comfort, she reacted by scratching his arms. In fear that she would hurt herself in the dark, Five held onto her even as she struggled like an animal caught in a trap.

“It’s ok, Vanya. It’s just me. I’m here. I’ll keep you safe,” Five tried to muster a tone of reassurance, tried to mimic how Vanya used to modulate her voice to make him feel like he was the most important being in the world. But it didn’t work. Vanya then decided to bite him. And it was at that point in time that he cursed himself for never expending energy with getting along with other people. To be fair, he never cared about other people. Vanya and, to a lesser extent, their other siblings were all that mattered to him. They’ve long known what he was like and gotten used to him.

How was Five to know that Vanya would lose her memories? And how was he to deal with a Vanya who might as well be another person?

Had Diego been the one out of control, Five would have just hit him on the head with a vase or something. That would have knocked him out and given Five some measure of peace and quiet. Luther’s way of dealing with hysterical siblings was to hold them up until they calmed down.

Neither method appealed to Five when dealing with Vanya as she was now. Because one, he didn’t want to hurt her in any way and two, he didn’t have the strength to keep her in his arms indefinitely.

In desperation, he did the only other thing he could think of. Something Vanya used to beg him for but he never allowed.

He sang _Itsy, Bitsy Spider_.

If a tsunami wasn’t a sign of an oncoming apocalypse, then surely this was.

But at least, Vanya finally calmed down enough to ask him to sing it again.

________________

When Five and Vanya were growing up, Reginald would never allow them or their other siblings to go out without his supervision. This usually meant going out on Academy missions. But since Vanya didn’t have any powers, she rarely went out on a sanctioned trip. 

This was why Vanya rarely turned down an offer to sneak out. It hadn’t mattered to her if they only went to Griddy’s to eat doughnuts until they puked. She enjoyed stargazing outside just as much as a snowball fight at the park in the middle of winter.

Now, Vanya didn’t go out at all. The only reason she didn’t get any paler was because she liked visiting the greenhouse at the top floor.

Five no longer bothered counting how many times he’d asked to take her outside. Vanya’s answer hadn’t changed since her amnesia. But Five never stopped trying. Klaus would say that he had a problem with letting go. But then again, Five wasn’t the best at listening to other people’s opinions.

Perhaps Vanya felt guilty for having to turn him down so often.

So one day, she pulled him down to the kitchen for a surprise. What greeted them was a burning microwave.

Thankfully, it was only the food inside that caught fire. Nothing else. But by the time Five pulled out what he recognized as her attempt at a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, Vanya was in tears.

“I’m sorry! It should have been easy to make. But I can’t even do that right!” Vanya said as she turned away, clearly heading out the kitchen and up the stairs. There was comfort in seeing a familiar side of her. But that was the Vanya he knew before they left the Academy. Trying to be of use, trying everything she could to be included only to be totally shattered when a small mistake was made.

Good thing one of the many uses of his powers was to block Vanya from leaving the room in tears. He sat her down and had her watch as he devoured her creation.

It was edible. And after years of making ends meet, the sandwich was not even at the top of the list of the worst foods Five had ever eaten. Had she regained her memories, Vanya would know this seeing as she ate the same things he did at the time.

“It’s good! Let’s try something a little less crispy next time.”

Five thought he sounded lame by saying that. But being able to bring a smile to Vanya’s face made it all worth it. In fact, he couldn’t remember feeling this accomplished ever. Not when he first learned how to control his spatial jumps, not when he beat his own record on how far he could jump, not when he received a month’s bonus to ensure he and Vanya had enough to eat, not even when he finally landed a job he coveted at the university.

_______________________

There were nights when Five would just collapse on his bed and slumber without dreams. Being kept busy helped though he would never in a million years admit it out loud where Reginald Hargreeves might still be recording. 

Other times, he would dream of happier times when Vanya remembered their love and they would be together in the apartment near the Icarus theater. Despite being walking distance from Vanya’s workplace, Five would always come home earlier. Of course, he kind of cheated by using his powers. But Five would be forgiven because he often bought dinner. Those dreams had him waking up in tears.

But that was all right because Five could easily wipe tears away and get on with the rest of the morning or night, depending on the shift Dad had him on.

But this dream was different. He dreamt that no one got to Vanya in time, that her bloated corpse was actually floating face down in the water. Five dreamt he was underwater looking up as he saw Vanya’s face permanently set to a look of pure horror.

Five woke up in cold sweats and gasping for air as if he truly had spent an inordinate amount of time underwater. His brain didn’t even give him the luxury of erasing the image of that nightmare from his memory.

Vanya opened her eyes as soon as she sensed his presence in her room.

“I’m sorry I woke you. I just- I just needed to see you.”

Five couldn’t remember being this irrational. The moment he woke up, he knew that Vanya was still alive. But the nightmare rattled him enough to make him feel the need to make sure.

He must have looked ill. Because Vanya quickly turned over her comforter and indicated for him to lie down beside her. She used the sleeves of her shirt to wipe up the beads of sweat dotting his face. And then she stroked his hair, just like she used to. Five closed his eyes for a few seconds to try to gather some semblance of calm and serenity, with a lot of help from her gentle ministrations.

“What happened? Please talk to me.”

Five opened his eyes to see the concern on her face. His first instinct was to keep silent. He didn’t want to burden her with his problems. But he made it a point to keep his promises with Vanya, whether she remembered or not. And one of those many promises involved telling her the truth, no matter how horrible it sounded.

“I dreamt that you drowned, that no one came to save you when you needed it.”

The tears prickling his eyelids had him turning away from her. Five needed to stay strong. Vanya was the one needing all the help she could get. He couldn’t believe how weak he was being to go running to her because of a fucking nightmare.

He felt her stiffen. Five was about to get up and tell her to forget it when she cut him off.

“I’m sorry! I never thought about how you were feeling. You must have spent a long time looking for- for me. And all this time, I’ve been treating you like you were going to infect me with something.”

The sadness in her voice was evident. And he turned to face her just as she took off her shirt.

Vanya wasn’t wearing a bra.

Maybe it was because he hadn’t seen her breasts in so long. But he became tongue tied. He knew where this was leading. And a part of him wanted to say that he didn’t come to her for sex. He just wanted to be sure she was ok.

But the baser side of his nature, the one always just around the corner whenever it came to Vanya, was excited and ready to follow her lead. Five wanted to think he put up a good struggle. But the truth was that it didn’t take long. 

By the time Vanya stood up to take off her pyjama bottoms, he’d already torn off his clothes, probably tearing off buttons in his haste. He missed seeing her like this, her face flushed and her eyes lit up with desire.

He frowned at a cursory look at her body. The scar at her hip from when she accidentally cut herself with Diego’s knife, as well as the Roman numeral five tattoo above her right breast, were gone. Most likely, casualties of Reginald Hargreeves’ need to control their lives. The old man probably had them removed just like the stuff in their apartment and Vanya’s job. Reginald Hargreeves had a lot of money, after all. And if that failed, there was always his inventions that Five remembered the old man tinkering with whenever Reginald was not doing anything Academy-related.

“What’s wrong?” Vanya was worried again, sounding as if she caused offense with her nudity.

“Nothing. Everything’s perfect,” Five said as he gently guided her to the bed. He was so happy that Vanya preferred the lights on. At least now, he could see her as she took him in and took her pleasure.

__________________

This was the first time Vanya remembered ever being held this lovingly. The way he couldn’t take his eyes off of her the whole time they came together. No one had ever looked at her like that before. As if she were the most precious thing in the whole world. As if he would brave trials and tribulations just to ensure her happiness. 

She found that he fit her like a glove, as if he was the missing piece that she didn’t even know she had lost. Until now.

Upon that realization, Vanya knew there was no way she could ever leave him.

Five was now dozing right beside her, seemingly finding peace and solace in their tryst. It took her a while to notice that she had been staring at him for some time. She was falling in love with him and a mix of joy and anxiety filled her heart.

She thought she would never feel this way about anyone. Not ever again. Especially not towards Number Five. Any version of Number Five.

Because here was the truth that she had kept from him since he came into the infirmary to take her hand in his, looking as if his happiness had been returned to him: she was not the Vanya he knew.

According to Reginald Hargreeves, that Vanya had drowned. He didn’t want to risk having a suicidal Five working for him. And that was what Reginald anticipated Five’s reaction would be should Reginald present him with a dead body. 

Using a machine that could take him to parallel worlds, he found her: almost an exact replica of Vanya that would be beholden to him, motivated to follow his orders.

After all, she was born and grew up in a world where women were technically their husband’s or father’s property. It was a world that did not have the technological advancements this one had, making sure that everything, from the cars to the television, frightened her with their strangeness. 

The only familiar face she met was was Number Five’s. But her husband’s face staring with the eyes of a stranger offered her the opposite of comfort. 

It wasn’t always like that. At first, her world’s version of Number Five was handsome and charming. She fell fast and hard. But on their wedding day, he quickly showed his true colors.

Being rich, her husband could gift her with the most expensive luxuries that money could buy. But it was only much later that she found out where it all came from. Where before he seemed to get along with her family and friends, he became possessive and would refuse her permission to leave his mansion or allow even her own father to visit her.

And every night in the cover of darkness, he would force her to have sex with him. It didn’t matter if she was tired. It didn’t matter that she was still healing from the bruises and blows he gave her. 

Women had no rights in her world. So all she could do was endure until a time came when she couldn’t. So she killed him.

By the time Reginald Hargreeves found her, her execution date was slated for the next day. He offered her a chance at another life, even if it was merely replacing one form of captivity for another.

Their deal was this. In exchange for saving her, she was to make sure that Number Five never left the Academy. Reginald’s plan was to have her fake an amnesia to explain why she did not know the things this world’s Vanya should know. And to keep Five essentially tethered to the Umbrella Academy, she was never to leave Hargreeves House for any reason. This world’s version of Number Five was utterly devoted to this world’s Vanya. Thus, as long as Five believed Vanya wanted to stay, he would as well.

The videos she watched of the old Vanya was explained as something that might trigger the return of her memories. But in truth, Reginald Hargreeves had her watch the tapes to better mimic this world’s Vanya. Slowly but surely, the videos gave her confidence that she could pull it off. It also gave her enough insight to conclude that this world’s Number Five was not the monster her husband was.

So she finally agreed to spend more time with him. 

It went without saying that Five must never know what happened to his Vanya. If he did and he left the Academy, Reginald would take her back to her world.

And Vanya would not have that.

So when Number Five came to her talking about a dream of Vanya drowning, she felt she had to act. Whenever her husband was in a rage, the best way (that did not always work) to distract him was through sex. 

As she stroked his length, she hoped that this Number Five liked the same things her departed husband liked. They were genetically similar so it made some sort of sense. Like her Number Five, this one liked having his cock deep in her throat as she kneaded his buttocks. But unlike her husband, this one reciprocated by giving her an orgasm with his mouth and fingers before plunging his length to the hilt at a stroke.

It had been some time since anyone had entered her body and she felt the sting of his intrusion. But it gradually faded as he peppered her cheeks, her lips, her neck and her collarbone with kisses.

Vanya found that she only remembered her predicament when their joining was long over and Number Five was sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed.

Logically, a part of her knew she couldn’t keep this deception up forever. But she was desperate, fearing for her life on one end and wanting to stay together with a man who didn’t know who she truly was in another.

She knew what she was doing was wrong. But what else could she do but keep the charade up? All that was left was to hope her familiar face and his desire for Vanya to be alive would be strong enough to keep her in this world forever.


End file.
